I’ve been taking a holiday break. That will continue until this weekend, but I thought I would let you know that I finally posted the lyrics to “Balance (with three litanies).” I’ve also uploaded “Essay 8 – The Powell Cabal Primer,” the only economic essay that had not been uploaded to The Middle Class Forum. [...]
The three most striking events in Christianity are the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Pentecost. Each provides their own lesson in regards to overcoming the sin of separation. As excerpted from “Essay 18 – Our Sense of Belonging” in Systems out of Balance: “Christians have the ultimate expression of humility through the Crucifixion of Christ, which involved [...]
I have been comparing western “sin” with eastern “karma.” For this entry on apprehensive confusion I will borrow directly from “Essay 18 – Our Sense of Belonging” in Systems out of Balance. “We all get confused. The reason for our confusion determines whether this weakens our oneness or belonging. I once attempted to learn German, [...]
One of the three deadly sins, as categorized on The Middle Class Forum, was cynicism. Cynicism forsakes a sense of belonging to anything that transcends our individual or social lives. Faith in the self apart from the whole or faith in material goods supplants faith in God, Mother Nature, or a universal consciousness. Anger is [...]
From a western perspective, one of the three deadly sins is vanity. From an eastern perspective one area of suffering we must overcome through karma is desire. The two are related. No one desires air, even though that is the most critical substance we cannot live without. There is no shortage of air. Desire targets [...]
There are similarities between sin and karma, at least in my understanding of them. I related my understanding of sin in the previous entry. Sin is an assault on our belonging, separating us from others, from ourselves, or from the transcendent. Karma also relates to belonging, though that is my own “spin” on what a [...]
I was perplexed about sin while growing up. The only answer I seemed to get from adults was circular. Sins were affronts to a perfect God. What made God perfect? The absence of sin. Then I came upon a definition of sin provided by Paul Tillich from “You are accepted,” in The Shaking of Foundations [...]
We tend to think of advanced civilizations as those with the most technology. Images of Star Trek and the Jetsons come to mind. By extension advanced civilizations are those farthest remove from our prehistoric days, as technology advances steadily with time. This conveniently allows us to conclude that we are more advanced by the necessary [...]
The previous entry equated a high quality of life with preserving our natural rights. There is an inherent problem modern culture faces with this. It’s easy to preserve natural rights where there are limited choices that can be made. When those choices expand because of diversity so does the difficulty of preverving the natural rights [...]
Systems out of Balance is divided into three parts corresponding to the Declaration of Independence’s reference to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” I make some liberal interpretations to equate these components with natural rights. In particular I refer to a “Cultural Quality of Life” in terms of the preservation of our natural rights. [...]